incubate

American  

[in-kyuh-beyt, ing-] / ˈɪn kjəˌbeɪt, ˈɪŋ- /

verb (used with object)

• incubates,
  present (3rd person singular)
• incubated,
  past participle,  past
• incubating
  present participle

1. to sit upon (eggs) for the purpose of hatching.

2. to hatch (eggs), as by sitting upon them or by artificial heat.

3. to maintain at a favorable temperature and in other conditions promoting development, as cultures of bacteria or prematurely born infants.

4. to develop or produce as if by hatching; give form to.

   His brain was incubating schemes for raising money.

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verb (used without object)

• incubates,
  present (3rd person singular)
• incubated,
  past participle,  past
• incubating
  present participle

1. to sit upon eggs.

2. to undergo incubation.

3. to develop; grow; take form.

   A plan was slowly incubating in her mind.

incubate British  

/ ˈɪnkjʊˌbeɪt /

verb

1. (of birds) to supply (eggs) with heat for their development, esp by sitting on them

2. to cause (eggs, embryos, bacteria, etc) to develop, esp in an incubator or culture medium

3. (intr) (of eggs, embryos, bacteria, etc) to develop in favourable conditions, esp in an incubator

4. (intr) (of disease germs) to remain inactive in an animal or human before causing disease

5. to develop or cause to develop gradually; foment or be fomented

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• incubation
  noun
• incubational
  adjective
• incubative
  adjective
• unincubated
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• incubating
  present
• incubated
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• incubate
  simple
• incubates
  simple
• have incubated
  perfect
• has incubated
  perfect
• am incubating
  progressive
• are incubating
  progressive
• is incubating
  progressive
• have been incubating
  perfect progressive
• has been incubating
  perfect progressive

Past

• incubated
  simple
• had incubated
  perfect
• was incubating
  progressive
• were incubating
  progressive
• had been incubating
  perfect progressive

Future

• will incubate
  simple
• will have incubated
  perfect
• will be incubating
  progressive
• will have been incubating
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of incubate

First recorded in 1635–45; from Latin incubātus, past participle of incubāre “to lie or recline on, to sit on (eggs),” equivalent to in- “in” + cub(āre) “to sit, lie down” + -ātus past participle suffix; see in- ², -ate ¹. Cf. incumbent, concubine

Explanation

When a chicken sits on an egg, it incubates it. To incubate means to keep something safe and warm so that it can grow. The word can be used metaphorically to mean to keep something safe in order for it to have time to grow. You incubate a plan or an idea before bringing it into the world, or, metaphorically speaking, hatching it. Premature or particularly small babies are placed into an incubator when they are born. This warm, clean environment helps them to grow.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

incubate incubates incubated incubating

He said it was "clearly impossible at the moment" for the protests "not to incubate within them some sort of antisemitic or demonising language".

From BBC ● May 2, 2026

We’ve watched it incubate in this country since Oct.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 17, 2025

They created PDA in 2022 as a place to incubate their work, not knowing the vast community they would draw in almost instantly.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 16, 2025

He stayed back to incubate the egg while Wisdom headed back to sea for a time, researchers said.

From New York Times ● Dec. 6, 2024

The shells of her eggs would be thin and eventually smash when she tried to incubate them.

From "Frightful's Mountain" by Jean Craighead George

For more than 70 years, most annual flu vaccines have come from a manufacturing process that incubates the virus in chicken eggs.

From Slate ● Aug. 6, 2026

"Twitter has long served as the place where our national conversation incubates and develops," he says in the video.

From BBC ● May 9, 2023

Talking does not just reflect thinking, but shapes it, too, or — to use a favorite Beckerman word — incubates it.

From Washington Post ● Feb. 18, 2022

Leprosy incubates slowly, affecting the skin, upper respiratory tract, eyes and peripheral nerves.

From Nature ● Mar. 3, 2019

The emergence of hiv was subtle: it incubates for years in a human host before it kills the host.

From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston

He was the teen prodigy, destined for greatness, incubated at Borussia Dortmund, and now playing for one of soccer’s leading clubs.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 12, 2026

It sees vulnerable curlew nests taken from the wild and artificially incubated.

From BBC ● May 31, 2026

It was fitting that the dogfight took place at Edwards Air Force Base, a vast desert facility where Chuck Yeager broke the speed of sound and the military has incubated its most secret aerospace advances.

From Seattle Times ● May 3, 2024

She used a pair of electrodes to deliver an 80-millisecond electric pulse to some samples, then incubated all the cells for 12 hours.

From Science Daily ● Apr. 30, 2024

We are safe, well ventilated, and incubated, provided we can avoid technologies that might fiddle with that ozone, or shift the levels of carbon dioxide.

From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas

It works with these managers to create additional capacity by developing and incubating new strategies.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026

The team have been "headstarting" the birds, Perkins explained, by taking in eggs from wild nests and incubating and raising them in specially-constructed pens.

From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026

“We are now taking the foundry part of what we had been incubating and creating that as a resource” for the U.S. government, he said.

From MarketWatch ● May 22, 2026

Curiously, DDT did not kill the birds outright, but rather caused their eggshells to collapse under the weight of the incubating adults.

From Slate ● Feb. 21, 2026

I close my eyes and see Frightful incubating her eggs.

From "On the Far Side of the Mountain" by Jean Craighead George